School reform confusing, says GCS board member

January 19, 2010|By Michael Jones, HT Staff Writer

GAYLORD — After Gaylord Community Schools (GCS) Board of Education signed a Jan. 6 letter of support for Michigan to seek the $400 million in Race to the Top federal funds, the state requested the school board sign a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at its Jan. 11 board meeting.

“Things kept getting added by the state at the last minute and it’s been confusing at times to know exactly what districts are agreeing to when they sign the letter,” GCS board vice president Cathy O’Connor said of the re-authorization the board signed, which resulted because a number of language changes the state made to the original MOU.

Since Jan. 4 when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed education reform legislation to comply with federal guidelines to compete with other states for its slice of the $3.4-billion Race to the Top initiative funds, the state has revised language concerning the grant.

O’Connor said the changes were to clarify the MOU for school districts and local teacher’s unions, whose support the state had sought prior to Tuesday’s deadline to submit its application to the United States Department of Education.

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“The good thing though is that we have an out,” O’Connor said referring to a provision added by the state which will allow districts who have signed the MOU to opt out if once the final reform language is in place the district decides it is not to its benefit to participate.

The changes made by the state were to clarify the requirements and expectations to school districts if the state was to successfully obtain the federal funding and to seek local teacher union support for the initiative.

While O’Connor said more than 500 of the state’s 549 school districts had signed the MOU, only a handful of teacher’s unions had endorsed the grant application.

Part of the legislation provides provisions for merit pay to teachers based in part on student achievement and annual evaluation of teachers and administrators using data on student growth. Teacher’s unions have been concerned with the lack of detail from the state on just how the education reforms would work.

Gaylord Education Association (GEA) president Lisa Moskal-Watson, GEA president and Gaylord High School teacher, said the GEA did not sign the MOU because of the lack of specifics in the legislative language.

“Who doesn’t want to get funds?” she said of the competitive federal grants. “But at the same time we feel very uncomfortable with signing what would amount to being a blank check. We want to know that these reforms are good for our children.”

Moskal-Watson said the Michigan Education Association (MEA) had recommended local teacher unions not sign the MOU due to the uncertainty of how the legislative reforms could impact its members.

“We don’t want to deprive our members of their bargaining rights,” Moskal-Watson indicated. “Once we know what the details are and how it will be implemented, we might have a better feel for it. Right now it’s just not too clear.”

Even without the endorsement of local teacher’s unions, O’Connor said school districts could still submit an MOU to the state, signaling their support of the Race to the Top initiative.

“The good news out of this is the reform requirements the state is legislating, we’re already doing most of them. We’re using school data to improve student achievement. We do a lot of in-house assessment beyond the MEAP to monitor student progresses. I don’t think this is going to have a big impact on how we currently educate our students — we’re already do it.”

If the state is successful in securing the $4.35 billion in competitive federal funding Gaylord would receive around $189,000 to help implement or continue the reforms identified in the education reform legislation.